


Death By Your Hand

by LozB4



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Kinda, M/M, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Needs a Hug, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Whump, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:21:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26682109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LozB4/pseuds/LozB4
Summary: The last time Joe killed Nicky was 921 years ago. The last time Nicky killed Joe was a few seconds ago.---In a hopeless situation shortly after Merrick's lab, Nicky decides that the last thing he can see again is Joe's torture, even if that means stabbing Joe and resigning to be tortured himself.And even a slightly annoyed Joe will always rescue his Nicky.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 24
Kudos: 482





	Death By Your Hand

**Author's Note:**

> This has been dancing around in my head for a week so I'm happy I got to write it, please enjoy!

The last time Joe killed Nicky was 921 years ago. The last time Nicky killed Joe was a few seconds ago. 

Nicky has always made a point of remembering their last deaths at the other's hand, Joe likes to forget. 

Its not that Nicky likes the guilt, of course he doesn't, but the lingering shame of his actions in the Crusades keeps him grounded when Joe can't. 

There is shame in his eyes as he pulls the short blade from Joe's chest and feels his beloved's life source trickle across onto his hands then onto the ground whilst Joe's frantic eyes meet his. "I'm sorry Yusef."

"Nicolo no-" 

\---

The mission seemed simple at the time, it was a combination of Nicky, Joe, Nile and Andy, all unstoppable forces in their own way. But it was only their second mission together and Andy was still discovering the limitations of her mortality as well as settling into having a new team member. 

Like always Nicky and Joe moved as one, cutting through the mafia gang with a penchant for trafficking. On the other side of the abandoned apartment complex Nile and Andy steadily made their way through, all four searching for the missing women and children who had been taken days ago. 

It was clear going in that the mafia had not even the slightest inkling that they weren't up against normal justice seeking humans, and the ones who found out were dead seconds later. 

Joe and Nicky cleared their side of the building first and ever the sniper, Nicky headed to the window to keep watch whilst Joe radioed Andy. "All clear our side boss. How's it going?"

"We're getting there. Haven't found anything yet. Possible we've got the wrong place."

"Its starting to seem that way. Nick and I will head back. Meet you at the rendezvous." 

"Joe there's more coming in, tell Andy and Nile to stay back. We'll deal with these."

"You hear that boss?"

"I don't need protecting."

"I don't think that's what he's thinking. Clear your bit and we'll meet you when we can. Come Nico." 

With a deadly precision Nicky hit the first member of the gang's back up then reloaded his rifle, "I am low on bullets. May need to use swords." 

They met the first of them in a hallway on the second floor, distantly Nicky could hear Nile and Andy's fight a few floors up but by the sounds of it they were no where near joining them. 

For minutes the fight went well and bodies fell around them like dominos before the sheer number of those entering compared to those falling was not equal. "Joe there are too many!" 

"Keep fighting! Andy will come!" 

Over the clamour of battle Nicky was the one to hear the instruction. "Grab them both and get them in the truck. We'll see if they want to tell us how they found our little secrets." 

With some struggle and a broken shoulder for his troubles, Nicky fought his way back to Joe, eyeing the fact that these oblivious men had switched from killing to knockout techniques. 

A second capture in the same month?

Nicky didn't know if he could face the sound of Joe's screams again. Inevitably captors always found out about their love for each other, usually because of one of Joe's speeches. Then they took pleasure in hurting one for information out of the other. If they hurt Joe, Nicky was positive that he would just give up Copley and all the other sources of intel to save his love from pain. And unfortunately that couldn't happen. 

Yet these morons didn't know they were immortal so what would they want with a dead body? 

"I'm sorry Joe." 

"What?" 

There is something almost familiar in the surprise on Joe's face when Nicky's knife buries to the hilt in his chest and it makes Nicky sick to the stomach. A clean kill. 

"I'm sorry Yusef." 

\---

Joe wakes to something patting his face and cracking an eye open he realises its Andy. "Welcome back big guy." 

He can still feel the blood sticking to his chest around the gaping hole in his shirt. Nicky's knife lies next to him. 

Nicky. 

Nicky stabbed him? 

He could see the sorrow in those beautiful eyes right before he died but that still didn't explain why after 921 years of peace, and love, that Nicky had decided now was a good time to murder his husband. 

Did something happen to him at Merrick's lab? Had they brainwashed him? 

That couldn't be true, they lay together in bed every night, Joe defenceless and Nicky with approximately 5 weapons at all times. There were easier times to kill Joe. 

"Joe- Joe hey come back to me where's Nicky?" Andy asks, her gaze directed to the bloodied knife on the ground and then back to Joe's chest. 

"I don't know. I don't know- he- he stabbed me." 

"Stabbed you? Nicky wouldn't stab you."

"I don't know what to tell you Andy he slammed that knife through my heart! He- they must have taken him after. There were a lot of them, we were overwhelmed- Nicky he, he fought his way back to me then stabbed me." 

Joe pauses, had Nicky obtained information he didn't? Thinking back right before his surprising death the gang had stopped tried to kill. They were going to be captured and Nicky killed him. 

Oh sweet, kind Nicky saved him from the torture they both dreaded reliving... By the unconventional method of a knife through the heart. 

"They're hurting Nicky we have to go!" Joe announces, picking up his scimitar, Nicky's longsword and the knife used to kill him. 

"Where did you get that information from?" Nile questions, 

"Nicky would only stab me if he was desperate. He must have known they wanted to capture and most likely torture us." 

As they drive following Copley's directions Joe mills it over in his head, he and Nicky had been captured countless times, none quite as gruesome as the most recent one but in all that time Nicky had never killed him beforehand. 

What changed now? 

\---

Nicky wakes to cold water. The worst way to wake up. The best way to wake up is in fact to Joe's kisses, coffee and maybe an omelette.

"Oh good you're awake. Do you want to tell me why a bullet wound through your shoulder vanished?" 

Nicky pulls himself up to a sitting position in the middle of a basement floor, the light shining directly on him. 

Nicky squints up at the man towering above him, he's seen pictures of this man from Copley. 

No. 1 thug. 

"No." 

A steel capped boot kicks his ribs and Nicky distinctly feels two break. 

"How about why you stabbed your friend through the chest?"

"Because you're oblivious." 

The same steel capped boot kicks his back. Right in the kidneys. 

"Where did you get your intel from."

"Not telling." 

"How did I know you would be like this. Fine what do you want to lose first? I say we start with teeth. Then maybe those eyes. It would be nice if you stopped glaring at me." 

Nicky hates losing eyes, its only happened once before, by an arrow through the back of the head. The sensation of having them cut out is far worse he discovers. 

In Merrick's lab Nicky hid his screams to keep Joe calm, he finds no such reason to do so here and drowns out most of his questioning with long echoed screams and sobs of Joe's name. 

He didn't like the view in the basement but he'd take it over the darkness. 

He can feel his eyes returning slowly behind his closed eyelids but from memory, the regrowth takes at least 30 minutes. 

"Whose your contact?"

"I don't know." 

The knife digs into his back and stays there, and the healing makes the wound tighten around the cool blade. On his chest he can feel heat drifting just over his heart before a searing pain takes over and they brand what Nicky can only assume is the gang's insignia on his chest before he passes out or dies, he doesn't know. 

When he wakes he only has one hand, he presumes they've been having fun with his immortality whilst he was out. Limbs take forever to regrow. He just hopes Joe is there when the time comes for all that. 

He screams again when the brand is pressed into his back this time, burning over his spine and unintentionally he whimpers out Joe's name. 

"Who is Joe?"

"I killed him." That piece of information is easy to spill but the admission hurts to give out. He didn't want to kill Joe. 

"But you didn't kill him did you?"

"I hope not." Nicky mumbles. On a test of opening his newly grown eyes Nicky can see nothing but vague differences between light and dark so he closes them again and tests his remaining restraints. 

It is possible that he could escape, even with no eyes and one hand he'd probably put up a good fight against most of these buffoons. But it is easier in this case to just wait for rescue. 

Just as the knife is being slowly dragged through his stomach to Nicky's responding screams, rescue comes. 

Rescue comes in the form of a bang, a scream and then a thump before a warm and familiar hand touches Nicky's side. "Hey. Hey- Nicolo, destati." 

Nicky just groans and with a quick apology Joe's hands slip the knife from his stomach. "Nicolo come back to me. Open your eyes." 

"I'm here- I'm here- they took my eyes"

"They took your eyes?"

"They're back. Mostly they're back. I can't see much." He admits honestly as Joe releases him from his bindings, his fingers lightly touching over Nicky's missing hand.

"Come on, Andy and Nile are freeing the women and children. Your trail led us right to them."

"I helped?" 

"Yeah you know what didn't help? Stabbing me and getting taken here alone Nicolo." Nicky winces at the sharpness in Joe's voice, he hasn't heard that directed towards him in 900 years. He can practically see the glare on Joe's face even if he can't. 

"Later please." Is all he whispers for Joe to rest a comforting hand on his waist, 

"I'm here, lean on me." 

Nicky can almost see by the time they exit the maze of corridors and Andy greets them from where she is finishing loading up children onto an ambulance. Nicky recognises her from her distinctive walk as she strolls over. "You ok?" 

"Yeah. Thanks for the rescue." 

Nile must come up by his other side because he jumps when her slim hand touches his arm. "Whoa- sorry didn't mean to startle you."

"Its fine- can't see." 

"They cut out his eyes." Joe explains, a hand running down Nicky's bare torso, Nicky can vaguely see Andy moving and then her green jacket he thinks covers him. Joe's gentle fingers tighten it over his shoulders and then his hand drops back down to be a comforting presence on Nicky's waist. 

"They cut out his eyes?! Oh my god- do they regrow?" Nile exclaims. 

"They'll heal just like the rest of us but it takes time to regrow something as complex as eyes." Joe explains, "He'll be fine in a few minutes." 

A slight crack makes Nicky wince and try to focus on his hand which appears to be halfway through reconstruction. Briefly he hears Nile make a disgusted noise that brings a slight smile to his face. She'll learn. 

"Come on lets get him home before he scares the villagers." Andy mutters and on cue the immortals follow her. 

Nicky can fully see by the time the car pulls up outside the safe house and he chances a look at Joe. To the undiscerning eye his love looks completely calm and happy, his arm resting around Nicky's back and his other hand cradling Nicky's nearly healed one. But Nicky can see the tension in his jaw that doesn't ease when he smiles back at Nicky. "There you are." 

Once Nicky is showered, with Joe's un-optional assistance they sit in the kitchen, Nicky's gaze firmly on his own lap whilst Joe plates up an omelette and places it down in front of Nicky. "Eat, you'll be exhausted."

From her place sedately sipping a cup of tea that undoubtedly contains vodka Andy says, "Alright Nile we're going to a hotel for the night so these two can yell it out." 

"Yell what out? They seem fine."

"Its sweet that you think that." 

The safehouse door slams shut and Nicky winces at the noise, its not like he can have a headache but exhaustion makes the world seem too sharp and loud. 

In all their years Joe must know and respect this because he hisses out quietly as he leans over the table opposite from Nicky. "Whether we are going into battle, or torture Nicolo I want to be with you. We don't suffer alone. We don't have to because we have each other."

"I couldn't."

"Couldn't what?" 

"I couldn't listen to you scream again."

"How do you think I felt? I could hear you screaming from outside that building. Do you know how thick those walls were-" 

"I- sometimes all I can hear is you screaming Joe like you did in Merrick's lab. It rings over and over in my head and I can't stop it. I didn't want to hear it again. I'd rather suffer for a thousand lives alone than have you suffer once with me." 

"Nicky-"

"I'm sorry I killed you."

"You never screamed once in Merrick's lab. Not once." 

Nicky doesn't reply, instead taking a sip of the hot sweet tea Joe concocted for him. 

"You did that for me didn't you?"

"There aren't many things I don't do for you. Stabbing through the heart included. But that- that was selfish stabbing you. I didn't want you to suffer for my sake because I couldn't bear it Joe. I couldn't." 

Joe leans over the table, cupping Nicky's face and forcing their eyes to meet. "We go together Nicolo. Life and death." 

Nicky resigns with a nod and a sigh before repeating. "I'm sorry I killed you." 

Joe just laughs lightly. "That's the thing I'm least furious about. Do it four more times and we'd be equal."

"You did not kill me five more times!"


End file.
